An Alternate Path
by Phoenix To Flame
Summary: What if Ike brought Soren home that day they first met, what if Elena knew who and what he was because she was the same? All it takes is one decision, one second thought, and the whole world spins on its axis to a different future.


This whole thing exists because of three what ifs that came to mind the first time I played Path of Radiance. Two of them are being explored in this chapter here. Deviations from canon will grow greater as this story progresses, though to be fair, I'm already starting with one, possibly two big deviations here.

I'm planning on Ike/Soren for this, other pairings and such have yet to be decided. So if you don't like the pairing, you're forewarned.

* * *

It was a warm summer day, yet Elena had chills running down her spine. They'd started sometime in the middle of the night, waking her from a sound sleep to being completely awake. And they hadn't stopped, though they were weaker than they'd been when they first started.

She'd lain awake in the dark, trying to pinpoint the reason, and an old conversation she'd had with her mother had come to mind, when she was much, much younger. _"Like calls to like, Elena," _she'd said in a hushed whisper, like she was afraid someone was listening to them. _"There will be others with a mark like yours. Not on their hand, but somewhere else. And you will always know when they are close. Like cannot hide from like." _

At the time, she didn't understand the weight of the elegant tracings on the back of her hand, they were easily covered with fingerless gloves, and going into the church had allowed her to keep it hidden even on the hottest days in modesty. Now she wore an archer's hand wrap that also served as a way to avoid burning her hand on the pot whenever she had to call Ike away from doing something reckless while cooking. Which didn't happen too often, but enough that the laguz and beorc in the little town didn't see anything odd with it. And while the laguz were uncertain around her, only the king knew who she was- and had no plans on telling, since he was sure that her mixed blood was what let her hold the medallion safely.

But now it was nearly noon, the children were with her on the way into the town to barter for fruits and meat, since while Gawain would hunt, he preferred not to disturb the beast laguz in their hunts. And the chill down her spine was not as strong as it was. Like whoever was at the end of the connection was weakening.

Ike had fetched yet another stick from along the dirt path, and was swinging it as he walked, careful to keep it away from her skirts. He looked terribly bored, and she knew that while he would behave in town, he would much rather run around in the woods like a laguz child. Though neither of them had the mark, the blood still was present in different ways. She smiled as Ike gave the forest a yearning look. "Ike," she said, with the tone present in her voice that had been developed especially for her wandering son.

He sighed and looked at the ground, "yeah, mother?" he said, obviously hoping that he wasn't about to be scolded.

Instead, she handed him his sandwiches for the trip. "Be back home before sunset," she told him with a smile. She knew there was nothing in these woods that would dare hurt him, but she still wanted to impress the idea in.

He lit up immediately, excitement showing in his blue eyes. "Really?"

She couldn't repress the little laughter at how completely his mood had turned around. "Yes, but be safe."

He nodded to show that he understood, and practically vanished into the undergrowth. Beside her, Mist pouted. "Why does he get to play and I have to go to town?" she asked, her lower lip quivering.

Elena smiled down at her daughter, "because he's old enough to know when to come home." she answered, as they continued down the dirt road.

She'd expected Ike to be gone for several more hours after she and Mist returned from the town with fresh fruits and two large chunks of deer meat that the owner had been persuaded to part with for half of what he was asking, but while she was chopping up carrots to put in the next day's stew, Mist came in from playing in the garden while keeping the laundry from blowing away yelling "Mom! Mom! Ike's home! He's carrying something!"

Knowing her son, it was probably an animal that he'd found and wanted to keep as a pet. After the last few incidents with frogs, she'd forbade him to bring any more home, but that had only stopped him for a week. She sighed and wiped her hands on her apron, steeling herself for another conversation about appropriate pets and how frogs to stick in his sister's bed the next time she annoyed him was not.

However, when Mist ran back outside to watch, she felt the chill down her spine pick up and ripple again, and the brand on her hand seemed to tingle as well. Was it a warning of danger?

She had just started to open the door when the chills turned into a jangle of sensation, and opening it the rest of the way made them stop as she saw just what her son had found.

At first, it looked like a pile of black fabric, but the way that he staggered with each step said that it was too heavy to be that. Then it moved, and she was met with exhausted red eyes from the child that Ike carried as carefully as he could. Their hair was matted and snarled, and their cheeks stained dark brown with dirt. Despite the exhaustion clear on their face, they clung to Ike with all their might.

Then she knew what the chills had been for. She ran outside.

Ike stopped in front of her, not setting the child down. "He's starving mom. And people threw rocks at him." he said with a strain in his voice. "Help him."

Elena swallowed as she looked down at the two of them. Ike held on as tightly as he could to the boy, who had somehow tightened his death grip on Ike's shirt. And she could already see the thread of a connection between them. Ike was protective over frogs he found in the pond, a child who trusted him would only bring out that instinct even more.

It wasn't a hard decision to make. "Bring him inside," she said, turning slowly to not startle them, and walking back in the house to dish up the soup for dinner.

Ike followed behind her, murmuring to the boy too quietly for her to hear. Which was probably for the best, because it let her wonder without tuning him out. Why was a branded child in Gallia? The king knew what she was, but because of her ability to hold the medallion, he called it a quirk of the blood, and didn't shun her. The laguz in the village didn't know that the uneasiness they sometimes got around her was the Goddess warning them of her family's sin. But that didn't mean that a branded child would have ever been born in Gallia.

So he had to be from somewhere else. Perhaps he had been brought with someone and abandoned in Gallia, knowing that the laguz would never care for a Branded, and the beorc would follow their lead. Certainly by the fact that he wasn't much smaller than Ike, and yet Ike could cart him around with only a little effort suggested that he was starving.

She scooped up some of the soup that was simmering for dinner into a wooden bowl while still thinking, and watched Ike carry the boy all the way to one of the chairs, setting him down in it. The boy just barely was able to support himself with the help of the table, and quickly Ike pulled up a chair next to him to help him. "See? I told you that mom would feed you. She's not like everyone else here." he said reassuringly.

Elena couldn't quite keep a small smile from her face as she turned around. The boy shrank from her, but when she set the bowl and spoon down in front of him and moved away, he dived into it with the desperation born of starvation. Ike watched him with glowing satisfaction on his face as he finished the bowl in record time, despite the heat.

When he finished, he curled up in the chair, still watching her with those bright red eyes. She couldn't recall having ever seen eyes that shade before, and they made her shiver inside just a little. And he clearly didn't trust her. That didn't surprise her one bit. She'd grown up with a family that had accepted her, and yet the levels they had to go to to conceal her heritage and traits had left her with difficulty believing most of the world too. Fifty years of hiding always did that, even with good people. "Ike," she said, hoping that the boy would let him help. "Would you be willing to help your new friend bathe, and share one of your shirts till I can make him something that fits without being so worn?"

Ike nodded eagerly. "Yeah." And he hopped off the chair, rounding the table again to get his friend down, who seemed to know how to walk, but not have the strength to hold himself up anymore, to take him to the bathroom. "Mother's going to make some bath water for you, and then we can get the dirt off..." she heard him explaining as they walked off.

Elena cleaned up the bowl and spoon, and set the smaller cauldron for heating water over the fire. While they didn't have running water like most people in Begnion, Gawain had dug a well just outside the kitchen window, that was blocked from anyone reaching it from the outside. And the window only lifted with a key, which she kept on her at all times. It took three buckets worth of water from the well to fill the cauldron, but she preferred the effort to get water much more than the idea of her children falling in the water and drowning because no one could reach them. She set more wood on the fire to keep it lasting long enough and looked out the window for Gawain, though she didn't expect him to be coming home yet.

She could see Mist though, dancing around the field as she retrieved one of the sheets that had blown off of the grass pile it was on, dragging it back to the rest of the clothes. She would go out and collect them once the water was set up. She could hear Ike talking faintly in the background, his voice calm and gentle like talking to a scared animal. She supposed it wasn't really a surprise that her child who had grown up with laguz and beorc around wouldn't be frightened by a branded child. Especially not if he knew that his mother was the same.

It was much later, when Gawain had come home and gotten the abridged version, or rather the Ike with his mouth full of food version, and she'd gotten all three of them to lie down to sleep, even the child finally, though it had taken much convincing from Ike, who was the only one that he'd believe when told something, that it was okay to sleep in his bed, they would figure out what to do in the morning, that she'd finally gotten to explain what she thought had happened.

"He's different than any other of my kind that I've met," she confided as Gawain put out the embers under their cook pot. "And I think he's been mistreated for a long time."

Gawain nodded as they walked back to their room. "He's certainly taken a shine to Ike though."

She laughed quietly so as to not wake the sleeping children. "Yes, he has. Though I'm not entirely surprised. Ike was so protective of him when he brought him back. I don't think he's left his side since they got back here."

Her husband shook his head as he settled back on their bed and she shut the door. "I suppose we're stuck with him now, Ike would never forgive us if we didn't let him stay."

"I wouldn't forgive myself if we drove him back out." she said softly, joining him. Her mark had subsided from the insistent tingling, but every now and then it let out a reminder that she was not alone in this house now. "Though I'm not quite sure what we'll do. We don't have another room, and even if we did, he wouldn't leave Ike's side.

He pulled her close, and she tucked her head under his chin like they'd done many, many nights. "We'll worry about that tomorrow," he said, more quietly than before. "Tonight, it doesn't matter."

But that time never came.


End file.
